The NJWeedman is dead. Long live … NJRepealBailReformMan? (JEFF EDELSTEIN COLUMN)

The NJWeedman is dead. Long live the NJBailReformMan. Or the NJRepealBailReformMan. Or the NJEighthAmendmentMan.

Or something like that. You get the idea.

“The war on weed is won. It’s over,” Ed Forchion (formerly NJWeedman) told me yesterday. “The government hasn’t quite quit yet, and things still need to be tweaked, but it’s over. Now I have a new beef; I want to see bail reform repealed in New Jersey.”

Very short, very quick, very incomplete look at bail reform in New Jersey: Strange bedfellows, from former Gov. Chris Christie to the ACLU, worked together to pretty much end cash bail in the state. Only people deemed dangerous, based on a points system, would be held in jail prior to trial. All others would be released.

Seemed pretty good on the surface.

Except not so much, according to Forchion, who just spent 447 days in prison without the possibility of bail because he was deemed a “threat” to the informant who was set to testify against him in a marijuana case. (Not so BTW: Forchion was found not guilty of witness tampering last week.) (Also this: Forchion has a federal civil rights lawsuit winding its way through the courts right now, and when that’s all said and done, don’t be surprised if Forchion ends up with a large cash settlement.) (And there’s about 14.3 zillion other things Forchion has going on, from wanting to reopen his Trenton restaurant to waiting to see if Trenton is going to pursue other cases against him, but that’s all backburner stuff for him because …)

“All a cop has to say now is you’re a danger to the community and the judge can detain you,” Forchion said. “I knew a guy in jail who was caught for stealing toothbrushes from a dollar store. He was deemed a danger to his community. Guys there because of drunken incidents, danger to the community. It just goes on and on and on.”

And you know who he said isn’t stuck in no-bail limbo? Heroin users and kids with guns.

“For the heroin addicts it’s like Grand Central Station,” he said. “They come in, spend three days puking everywhere, then get released. And kids with guns … I guess possession of a gun is not considered a violent act, so these kids, gangbangers, are being released after cops find a MAC-10 under their seat.”

In Forchion’s eyes, the state of New Jersey completely “eviscerated” the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which plainly states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” What it means, courtesy of ConstitutionCenter.org: “(P)rohibits the federal government from imposing unduly harsh penalties on criminal defendants, either as the price for obtaining pretrial release or as punishment for crime after conviction.”

Forchion is stone convinced New Jersey’s bail reform flies directly in the face of the Constitution.

“It gave the prosecutor’s office tools to imprison you for two years. It’s the return of the dungeon act. It was a good attempt, but sometimes when I look at lefties, they’re just too gullible, too soft, and don’t look at the opposite side to see how something can be turned into evil,” Forchion said. “Alex Shalom from the ACLU, he’s good guy, a left-leaning nice guy who was part of the negotiations. He got taken advantage of. This is the ACLU’s ugly baby, but there’s no way they will admit that. Listen: You give people an inch and they’ll take a mile. The prosecutors offices in this state are taking miles now. The state of New Jersey destroyed the 8th Amendment. Now anyone can get thrown in the dungeon. There is no violence on my jacket at all. And if they were able to do this to me, someone who is so outspoken and has the ear of the media, it can happen to anyone.”

So Forchion, not one to sit on the sidelines, is planning on jumping right into the bail reform fight.

“I’m dedicating myself to upending bail reform,” he said.

He’s working closely with Dog the Bounty Hunter (really) who’s also vehemently opposed to the new law. Dog and his wife Beth will be helping Forchion set up speaking engagements across the nation. Bail bondsman are afraid New Jersey’s law could be replicated elsewhere.

“Of course, bail bondsman have a different stake in the game here,” Forchion noted. “But an enemy of an enemy is a friend.”

Forchion admits the old system had negatives, but “at least it was there. Bail was an option.”

Now in New Jersey, a law meant to keep people out of jail while they await trial is — at least according to Forchion — being used to keep people in jail.

“They can just detain you, throw you in the dungeon, and that’s it,” he said. “So I have new beef. Bail reform. Not sure when it will be, but my next protest will be outside the ACLU’s offices in Newark.”

So yeah. After nearly 20 years, The NJWeedman is dead, long live … well, we’re still working on the name. NJRepealBailReformMan is just a mouthful.

There has been quite a few articles published in the media in New Jersey about the case. As well he has quite a following on Facebook and other social media. Various video’s and information is posted throughout his profile and I encourage you to view them and become familiar with the case. It is these activist’s, the ones who go to Court and fight unfair charges brought upon them, that are fighting for our freedoms! There are many of them out there. Most are never even heard of. But it is our responsibility to see that the “real news” is shared with everyone so that the truth can be told about the Justice System as it stands today. It must change! #Jury Nullification is one way to do this.

Getting involved in Politics is another. Ed Forchion is “still running for Mayor…”!

BTW – in still running for Mayor as a write in (despite) Mr Harris ( city clerk Trenton) June 12th – Election #Forchion4MayorLINK

Edward forchion and Christoher Campbell esq make major announcement about remaining cases before. Mercer county prosecutors office. I’m still a write in for Mayor 2018 ( June 12th)

I promised in april of 2016 that’d I’d whoop Prosecutor onofri’s ass. ( I’ve beat two of his minions) I ask that Onofri prosecute the remaining cases himself.

I’d like to talk about theBail Reform Act and the constitutionally unfair trial I was receiving despite the jury – rejecting the states false narrative used to create this vindictive prosecution.

I will be amending my current federal lawsuit ( forchion vs trenton, 3:16cv01339pgs) to add the malious police misconduct and prosecutorial vendetta in regards to the constitutional detention I just suffered the last 16months

Continuing on, Ed Forchion still has another trial and a Lawsuit pending to handle in the upcoming days and months, not to mention the Election in June. All of this makes for quite a busy schedule. Per information posted to his profile today he has retained a well known Attorney to help in the process.

Forchion has retained another attorney, Mario Williams, a managing partner out of the Virginia-based firm Nexus Caridades. He was put in touch with the attorney through reality TV star Dog the Bounty Hunter, who championed Forchion’s cause. Williams is expected to represent him in both federal lawsuits, part of a bigger fightback campaign the marijuana activist has launched to exonerate himself in his upcoming trial and restore his name. LINK

…Mario is Mario Williams, an Atlanta-based civil rights attorney who took a winding road to become one of the nation’s foremost legal advocates for those in need. The bulk of his cases focus on civil-rights violations, police misconduct, prisoners’ rights, and wrongful incarcerations. LINK

This quote and link explain the latest lawsuit pending.

Already hit with drug charges following a raid on his downtown business, Forchion’s lawsuit complained he was illegally and unconstitutionally being detained at the Mercer County Correction Center on witness tampering charges. In a phoned jailhouse interview with The Trentonian, Forchion laid out tactics for how he will avoid convictions that could send him to prison for a long time. He has filed an ethics complaint against Mercer County Judge Anthony Massi, who presided over his case. LINK

Below: link to PDF of the suit filed against the City of Trenton NJ.

Below are links to past and current articles concerning the cases of Ed Forchion.

In February 2016, Trenton police continually shut down the restaurant and accompanying “cannabis church,” the Liberty Bell Temple, citing a city ordinance that requires some establishments to close down at 11 p.m.

But Forchion, who has been jailed for almost a year, has always argued that the tickets were “bogus” and did not apply to his businesses because they are in a designated commercial zone.

Trenton Municipal Court Judge Gregory Williams agreed that Forchion’s businesses were not considered a residential building, and dropped 13 of the 22 police lodged against Forchion or his business.

“I feel vindicated,” Forchion said in a phone interview from jail with NJ Advance Media. “It’s not often I have a judge completely on my side.”

Judge denies NJ Weedman’s latest quest for freedom

Ed Forchion has been locked up on pre-trial detention since March of last year

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey marijuana advocate dubbed “NJ Weedman” has been arrested on witness tampering charges and was broadcasting on Facebook Live when SWAT team members burst through the door.

Mercer County authorities say Ed “NJ Weedman” Forchion was arrested Friday afternoon; he was indicted Tuesday by grand jury. His broadcast captured the moment officers entered a room at his girlfriend’s house.

“There’s probably officers in Trenton or somewhere looking at my Facebook Live right now,” Forchion said about seven minutes into the first broadcast. “I hear car doors opening but I’m not going to go near the door.”

A few minutes later, Forchion ended the first broadcast. He posted another video a short time later showing police officers opening the door and telling him to show his hands:

Forchion tells NJ.com he thinks the new charges stem from him revealing the name of a confidential informant.

Forchion was arrested in April during a police raid of his eatery, called NJ Weedman’s Joint. He has spent time in and out of prison for marijuana possession. In 2012, federal agents in California raided his pot farm, confiscating 600 plants, according to CBS New York. He is charged with selling marijuana at his establishment.

Prosecutors have said an informant bought marijuana from Forchion multiple times before the raid and provided essential information on the sales.

He was driving back to his home from upstate New York after a weekend with some friends. Upon entering New Jersey — Mahwah, to be exact — he got pulled over. The officer said he was doing 76 in a 55. Lousy enough luck there. And the luck got worse once the officer got a whiff of the car.

Pot. “He smelled the weed,” Bobby T. said. “He told me to get out of the car, asked me where it was, and I told him. He found my bowl and about 2.5 grams of pot.”

Bobby T. was handcuffed and arrested.

It was going to be a slam dunk case for the township of Mahwah. Bobby T. was dead to rights. And then … well, long story short: Bobby T. walked. Didn’t have to pay a dime. Case dismissed.

How did he pull this off? Simple enough: Through the dare-I-say brilliance of Ed Forchion, known far and wide as the NJWeedman.

I wrote about this earlier in the year. Forchion has created a printable, fill-in-the-blanks legal brief for anyone in New Jersey who gets caught with marijuana. His argument is as elegant as it is airtight.

The decision came after Forchion was nearly held in contempt of court in the morning as he delivered his closing argument.

Stay tuned for details of Thursday afternoon’s verdict.

Forchion, formerly of Pemberton Township, tried to introduce his jury nullification argument into the closing, but was quickly stopped by Superior Court Judge Charles Delehey, who had barred any discussion of it.

Forchion began verbally sparring with Delehey, who then ordered the jury out of the room and told the defendant he would be held in contempt if he continued to ignore the court’s orders.

“If you want to make a martyr of yourself, the court will deal with you,” the judge said. “You’ve done everything you can to disrupt this trial.”

Jury nullification would allow the jurors to disregard the law they were ordered to follow in considering the case and acquit a defendant, no matter what the evidence, in effect nullifying or invalidating the law.

Forchion, wearing a “Marijuana … It’s OK. It’s Just Illegal” T-shirt, refused to talk to his court-appointed attorney during the brief recess, but when Delehey and the jury returned, he toed the line and abandoned his blatant jury nullification pitch.

Instead, the legalization activist focused the jury on his plight as a licensed medical marijuana patient in California who brought a pound of pot to New Jersey in April 2010 for his own use.

“I don’t use it the way the state says. To me, it’s medicine, it’s food,” Forchion said, noting for the jury that he had been eating pot-laced cookies throughout the trial. “I feel I’m the victim of a flawed law.”

The state alleged that because of the sheer volume of the marijuana, his intent was to distribute it. Burlington County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Luciano told the jury that the case was not “a political referendum” on medical marijuana or legalization.

“It is not a litmus test on the war on drugs,” he said.

Luciano also said the numbers and common sense should lead to a guilty verdict, noting that Forchion had enough pot on him when he was stopped by police in Mount Holly on April 1, 2010, to smoke for months.

By Luciano’s calculations, Forchion would have to smoke two to three joints an hour nonstop for 24 hours to get through the pound of marijuana in about six months. NJWeedman disputed the prosecutor’s math and said it doesn’t fairly portray how he uses the drug.

“He had more than any person could smoke on their own,” Luciano said, reminding the jurors that they didn’t have to find he was selling it to convict him and that sharing also constitutes distribution. “He was going to distribute this for profit. He was going to distribute it because that’s what he believes, that’s his drug, that’s his food and that’s his plant.”

Like this:

Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion court verdict: Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion talks before and after the verdict is read in his Burlington County jury trial on charges of marijuana possession and possession with intent to distribute.

MOUNT HOLLY — A jury convicted medical marijuana activist Ed “NJWeedman” Forchion of possession Wednesday, but could not reach a verdict on the more weighty charge of distribution.

Following the verdict announcement in Superior Court in Mount Holly, an uncharacteristically agitated Forchion, dressed in a white T-shirt with a green cannabis leaf pictured inside the O of the letters LOVE, challenged an assistant Burlington County prosecutor that he would be ready for a retrial on the distribution charge.

Forchion, who is representing himself, shot down his court-appointed lawyer’s plan to file a motion to have the court dismiss the possession with intent to distribute charge, saying angrily that the process would only delay the resolution of his case. The motion would have had to have been heard before a new trial could begin on the outstanding charge.

“I’m stuck here broke,” Forchion said. “I want to get this over with.”

Forchion, 47, grew up in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township but later opened a medical marijuana dispensary in California. He was arrested in April 2010 when he returned to New Jersey to visit his children and was stopped in Mount Holly with a pound of pot in his trunk.

Since then, Forchion has heavily promoted his case in an effort to further argue against New Jersey’s marijuana laws.

“This is bigger than me,” Forchion said while waiting for the jury’s verdict Wednesday. “I’m not in here just fighting for me.

“It’s the cause. I’m on the side of righteousness here.”

In his opening arguments last week, Forchion boldly proclaimed to the jury that the stash of pot was his but he maintained that he never had any intent to peddle his “medicine” to others.

During the trial, experts from both sides presented their opinions as to whether there was evidence that Forchion was intending to distribute the pot.

Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion court verdict: Ed "NJWeedman" Forchion talks before and after the verdict is read in his Burlington County jury trial on charges of marijuana possession and possession with intent to distribute.

MOUNT HOLLY — A jury convicted medical marijuana activist Ed “NJWeedman” Forchion of possession Wednesday, but could not reach a verdict on the more weighty charge of distribution.

Following the verdict announcement in Superior Court in Mount Holly, an uncharacteristically agitated Forchion, dressed in a white T-shirt with a green cannabis leaf pictured inside the O of the letters LOVE, challenged an assistant Burlington County prosecutor that he would be ready for a retrial on the distribution charge.

Forchion, who is representing himself, shot down his court-appointed lawyer’s plan to file a motion to have the court dismiss the possession with intent to distribute charge, saying angrily that the process would only delay the resolution of his case. The motion would have had to have been heard before a new trial could begin on the outstanding charge.

“I’m stuck here broke,” Forchion said. “I want to get this over with.”

Forchion, 47, grew up in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township but later opened a medical marijuana dispensary in California. He was arrested in April 2010 when he returned to New Jersey to visit his children and was stopped in Mount Holly with a pound of pot in his trunk.

Since then, Forchion has heavily promoted his case in an effort to further argue against New Jersey’s marijuana laws.

“This is bigger than me,” Forchion said while waiting for the jury’s verdict Wednesday. “I’m not in here just fighting for me.

“It’s the cause. I’m on the side of righteousness here.”

In his opening arguments last week, Forchion boldly proclaimed to the jury that the stash of pot was his but he maintained that he never had any intent to peddle his “medicine” to others.

During the trial, experts from both sides presented their opinions as to whether there was evidence that Forchion was intending to distribute the pot.

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“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” -- Frank Zappa